The invention relates to computerized and online financial services; and more particularly, to new methods and systems for integrated and automated computerized financial services.
Most financial institutions, such as banks, investments companies, stock brokers, credit card issuers, and insurance companies, offer online services to their customers/clients (collectively referred to as clients or users) which are accessible by the user through a website of provided by the financial institution. The online services range from basic non-transactional features such as reviewing transactions, account balance and statement information, to transactional features such as account to account fund transfers, wire transfers, loan applications, new account applications, bill payment and investment purchase and sale. The online services provided by each financial institution vary from institution to institution.
These online services provide a significant convenience to the user, and are designed to be fairly easy to use. For example, online bill pay systems allow a user to pay bills from various payees through the website provided by the financial institution (or a third party website service provider contracted by the financial institution). These online bill payment systems are sometimes called an online bill payment application or an online bill payment solution. The online bill pay systems allow a user to view, review, and/or make payments and pay bills to various payees from the user's financial account at the financial institution.
The user simply navigates to the online bill payment website using a web browser on a web enabled device, such as a personal computer, or even a cell phone, connected to the internet. Generally, the user sets up a list of payees in the online bill payment application and then can enter payment instructions for each payee that the user desires to make a payment. The user creates the user's list of payees by selecting the payees from a list of available payees provided by the online bill payment application. The application may also allow the user to search for payees using search terms, alphabetized groups, categorized groups, or the like. The user can make individual payments or can set up recurring payments to a payee, such as a specified amount every month or other periodic payment.
Some online bill payment applications have the capability to receive electronic bills (also referred to as e-bills), in which case the user can use the online bill payment application to view the bill, and then make a desired payment. If the user receives e-bills on the bill payment system for a payee, the user may be able to set up automatic recurring payments in which the bill payment system may make a payment to the payee for the full outstanding balance, the minimum required payment, or another amount specified by the user. In this way, once the user sets up the payment preferences for a payee, the bill payment application can make payments to the payee without any further action by the user.
Another useful tool for managing personal finances is a personal financial management software application. Personal finance software applications (including online applications) have become very popular and allow a user to organize and track their personal finances. As examples, Quicken® is a desktop and online personal finance software application, available from Intuit Inc., Mountain View, Calif., and Mint® is an online application (See the website “mint.com”). An example of an online personal financial management system provided as an online banking service is FinanceWorks™ provided by Intuit Financial Services, a unit of Intuit Inc., of Mountain View, Calif. FinanceWorks™ allows a user to download financial data from numerous financial institutions from a single website, and then analyzes and organizes the data and provides the financial management functions described above for personal finance applications. Such personal finance applications can perform financial management functions such as managing and paying bills, tracking and managing investments, performing budgeting tasks, viewing and printing summaries and reports, preparing and printing expense reports, writing checks, paying bills with checks or online The applications can download banking, financial and billing data directly from banks, companies, and financial institutions through a secure internet connection. The applications can create a financial profile of the user in which users can review their financial “picture,” review spending and saving habits, create budgets and spending and saving goals, calculate gains and losses on investments, and have reminders set to emphasize dates on which bills or other obligations are to be paid.
More sophisticated applications can also manage small business income and expenses, and investment properties. Some applications can also compare a user's bank accounts, credit cards, brokerage accounts, and even other service and utility accounts like cellular phone service, cable/satellite TV, gas and electric, with competing accounts to determine if there are more cost effective options.
Personal finance applications may also provide tax planning information and prepare the personal financial data for transfer into a tax preparation software application.
Some financial institutions' online services even include a personal financial management application. However, while financial institution online services and personal finance applications have provided much convenience for users and may even be provided at the same website, the various online services such as bill payment, account review and personal financial management applications have no real connection between them. The burden is left to the user to coordinate these services on their own. With each action the user takes in on service, there are usually complementary actions for the user to take within the other systems.
For example, consider a customer that needs to pay a large bill, but their payment account does not have enough money to cover the expense, although they have sufficient funds in their savings account. The onus is on the user to check the balances of their accounts, transfer funds, and make the payment. As another example, suppose a user's primary spending account balance is getting low. If the user continues their current spending rate, they overdraw before their next paycheck. The onus again is on the user to detect this sit don and take corrective action. As one more illustration, a customer has a high interest savings account at their financial institution, but their primary spending account is at another institution. The user wants to maximize their eturns by keeping only what is necessary to cover spending in the primary spending account and to keep the rest in the high interest savings. The onus is on the customer to determine when and how much the move between accounts, and to initiate the transfers herself.